To all guitar players/teachers: Can you recommend a good guitar instructional DVD? Internet access is slow so I think a physical DVD, rather than online videos, would work best. This is for a teen who is new to guitar but did play mandolin a bit as a small child and played bass in middle school orchestra, so she has some basic music knowledge.

Thanks!

I don't have any recommendations for you Sarah but I did want to help clarify your request. What type of music does this teen want to play? There is no sense in getting a classical guitar instructional DVD if the teen wants to become Jimi Hendrix. Then again, maybe there is but getting a DVD suited to the teen's wants and dreams would narrow the search a bit. Classical? Rock? Folk? Bluegrass? There are more options than this.

I asked and it sounds like folk (which would include old-time) and perhaps some rock (though she's starting with acoustic guitar, not electric). For now, I think a tutorial that teaches basic chords (i.e., no need for jazzy stuff at this point), some strum patterns, maybe some finger-picking would be good. She's a very busy person so I don't know how much time she'll end up devoting to this, but I hope she'll find she likes it.

Thanks!
Sarah

The fun factor is definitely important! Remember that guitar can actually be pretty painful at first. And kids are not always known for taking the long view of things. Depending on their motivation, if the instant gratification isn't so instant or gratifying, they can get discouraged.

I used to teach guitar to kids. Many of the moms were very serious; they wanted sight reading, music theory etc. as part of the instruction, and that's what I offered. Guitar not just as guitar, but as a gateway to the whole world of music.

But I always set aside time to teach something that the student really wanted to learn, too. Something that they chose, something fun. Whether it was a favorite pop song, or blues riff, or some cool picking/strumming pattern. The sense of empowerment (I hate that word) was important and made a big difference.

Not to cause thread drift, but after reading MTGuru's comment, I just had to ask, what was up with those Moms? Did they really think that the guitar was the "gateway instrument" to the world of classical music? What did they think their kids were going to do with those guitars? Was this a compromise or something where the Mom said, "You're going to take music lessons!" and the kid only agreed if it would be the guitar?

No, not really, Mute, it wasn't like that. I taught a mix of classical and folk, which is what I played. But not just "put your fingers here". Instrumental music is often the first exposure to the whole world of music and the beauty behind it, long before the idea of "theory" ever comes into it. You're absorbing it as you go, like learning to speak prose without knowing it. I tried to make sure my students had a sense that the diddly little exercises they were working on were always a part of a bigger picture.

A lot of this usually happens through music education in the schools or through piano lessons. But for whatever reason, these kids were doing neither, so they weren't getting that. They really wanted to play guitar. So the moms just wanted to be sure that the kids weren't missing out on learning to read music, etc. My approach was to build musicians, not just strummers.

Some of these kids did very well. And I could always tell when the light bulbs came on, and understanding flashed in their eyes and in their fingers. For a teacher, there's nothing else quite like it.